Sixteen year old Jack Amos, who won the Dome Race last year with a time of 35 minutes and 24 seconds, beat his time this year with a blistering 32:40, several minutes ahead of the next fastest person.

“The course itself is really fun,” said Amos, who was aiming to set a personal best this year. “It hurt a little on the steep parts.”

The Dome Race is a year older than the Dawson City Music Festival and has hit 40 this year. As such, it’s a Dawson City classic event.

Walkers and runners gathered outside the Palace Grand Theatre on Saturday morning, shaking off the fatigue that might have been expected to accompany the morning after the first 2 a.m. night of the festival.

The trail watchers had been up earlier, and water stations had been established at strategic points along the way. John Mitchell’s Ranger crew was ready to patrol on ATVs and the EMS crew was on call, just in case.

Runners and walkers have to make their way up Mary McLeod Road (the old Dome Road) and weave through the Dome trail system and new Dome Road as they climb the 1,852 feet to the top of Dawson's Midnight Dome. That’s right; they climb 1,852 feet over 7.2 kilometres.

The Dome Race was graced with awesome weather this year. There was no rain and both the 9:30 a.m. (walkers) and 10 a.m. (runners) starting times were pleasantly cool for strenuous work without being at all unpleasant.

There were rumours of bear sightings, which have been common on Dome trails and in the subdivisions named after London, Service, Berton and North this summer. But members of the Rangers and the territorial Environment officers were patrolling by truck and ATV and no fresh signs were reported. With noisy groups of two and three dozen humans pounding the dirt and chip seal, it seemed likely that any bruins would keep their distance.

The view from the top of the Dome was tremendous and unobstructed by the morning clouds that have been a feature here recently. Organizers were waiting with cupcakes, sliced fruit, water and both hot and iced coffee.

Mayor Wayne Potoroka was there with a bullhorn, ready to announce the names of the contestants when the numbers they were wearing became visible as they entered the final sprint up the chute to the finish line banners.

This is the breakdown for the top five runners:

1. Jack Amos (32:40)
2. Garret deJong (35:35)
3. Darby McIntyre ( 38:45)
4. Logan Boehmer (39:19)
5. Joe Parker (42:16)
   Top female: Kristy Petovello (46:51)

Here’s the breakdown of the top five walkers:

1. Dirk Miller (1:04:35) and Teresa Procee (1:04:35)
2. Dave Ezzard (1:07:50)
3. Christian (no last name) (1:05:55)
4. Olive Toews (1:08:08)
5. Alexa Firglistaller (1:08:09)